Rud tilted his teapot, filling his metal mug with steaming tea. Mint’s version of the blend was fine, but he had suspected her of stealing it for quite some time. Not just the recipe, but the actual tea. Like most things she brought into the grove, it had been pilfered from nearby ruins, meaning it was old tea. Damaged by time or the elements, it didn’t have the same fragrance as his fresh tea. The druid held the cup under his nose, smelling the mixture of pure sweetness and oranges. He let out a sigh as Taz stepped into the mushroom house, smiling.

  “I’m sleeping much better. Thanks for asking,” Taz said, finding a seat. “Could I have a cup?”

  Rud nodded, pouring more tea into a spare mug. He handed it over, watching as his friend took a seat in a chair. The druid couldn’t deny that having a friend that always walked on two legs made him feel better about many things.

  “Did the soft stone upgrade work for you?” Rud asked, snacking on roasted mushrooms.

  “Oh, yeah. Slept on the cold stone last night. It was divine. Far better than some warm house.”

  Dwarves were funny like that.

  Rud was eager to test his Grove Weaver upgrade for his Construction Magic skill. The village he was building for the mortals had to be as comfy as possible. If he could construct the communal area as he planned, they could all gather under the pavilion and cook under an open fire. Perhaps they would share tales of their travels. Down the line, he hoped to reduce the harmful effects of the grove on outsiders. But perhaps that was just a dream.

  “You don’t mind if I work the smelter, do you?” Taz asked, breaking the extended silence. “I wouldn’t mind feeling the heat of one again.”

  “Go for it. I have a stock of Fairy Peat in the coal bin outside. Just be careful, it burns like crazy.”

  “Huh. Never heard of that. Thanks for the warning.” Taz sipped his tea, pausing for a beat. “Are you working on the mortal village today?”

  “Yeah. Hoping we’ll see some real-life mortals soon enough.”

  Taz gestured to himself. “Gaze upon me. For I am mortal.”

  Rud laughed. “Yeah, they don’t really mean non-spirits here when they say ‘mortal.’ They’re talking about everyone outside of the grove.”

  “Oh.”

  Taz ate more of the meat brought by Sarya, but the way it was already spoiling revealed a problem with the grove. Ban didn’t need food. Mint and Sarya went off to catch their food. But they had no way to store food for long, and that stuck in the dwarf’s beard like a mine spur. His words. But the dwarf had a dwarven solution.

  “Cold hills,” Taz proclaimed with no further explanation.

  “What?”

  “The stone in those hills can get cold, depending on how deep you go. The bat cavern was close to freezing, wasn’t it?”

  Rud remembered back to the times he had gone in there. Between his cloak and the fact his body ran hotter than his last, it was hard to tell when something was cold. He recalled his toes getting chilly, and nodded to himself. “It was quite cool.”

  “If you can convince the bats to move their spot, or let me work, I can carve out a tunnel in there to dig deeper.”

  Rud rubbed his narrow chin, shaking his head after a moment. The bats weren’t jerks, but they wouldn’t move. They were there first, and saw the place as their home. “Bats go out at night, don’t they?” he asked.

  “Not the ones in the mine I’m from,” Taz said with a scoff.

  Rud drained the last of his tea, pushing himself to his feet with a groan. “Well, I’m sure these ones do. Let me go have a talk with them. Are you cool with working at night?”

  “Sure, why not? I just need a few hours over a few days.”

  “I’m off to have a conversation with some bats,” Rud said, grabbing his staff and leaving the building. He needed to work on the second floor in his mushroom house but hadn’t bothered recently. There were other exciting things to do.

  Rud paid attention to the temperature in the mine this time. The entrance was warm enough, but after taking the left at the fork and descending to the cavern he could tell it was much cooler. The druid licked his finger, testing the air. It was considerably colder. Almost cold enough to act as a massive refrigerator even without digging deeper. He toggled on his Clear Communication skill and blocked out the errant conversation amongst the bats.

  “Hey guys,” Rud started.

  “Interloper. Flee! Fly, you fools!”

  “Just a second. I’m that guy… You know, the one who is cool?”

  “It is the idiot. No need to worry. All is safe.”

  “Just wondering if you guys would clear out of the cave. Maybe there’s another cave nearby.”

  “This is our home! Home. Cannot leave. Stay.”

  “Alrighty. Just so you know, some dwarf is coming down here to mine tonight. Maybe tonight. I don’t know.”

  “Dwarf. Love dwarf.”

  “Alrighty. Good talk,” Rud said, turning away and turning the upgrade off. Listening to critters babble on was still pretty rough. He couldn’t wait for the skill to increase in level.

  When Rud returned to the surface, he smelled the furnace being heated. The Fairy Peat didn’t have a distinct scent, but anything foreign contrasted against the earthy scent of the forest. The druid passed through the undergrowth, appearing at his mortal village. It needed a name, but without the place in a completed state, he wasn’t willing to settle on anything. All he knew was that the name needed to be pleasant.

  Rud stood before the next tree, prepared to transform it into another home. He didn’t know what the ‘freecasting’ feature of his newest upgrade was, but didn’t care. As he held the mushroom and stick in hand, he channeled the spell. Compared to when he cast it before, this time felt smooth. The leaf on his head pumped mana into the spell cleanly, never faltering like it had before. Each swipe of his stick saw more material moved in a place better aligned with his thoughts. The difference was one of buttery smoothness compared to life without the Grove Weaver upgrade.

  The village came to life as Rud worked, but there were details he didn’t like. While he had planted more trees to make up for the ones he cut down, the sparsity of the area made it unappealing. He looked back at the road, estimating that he could pull a length of that road off, connecting it to his village. Between the houses, he could plant shrubs. Near the pavilion—which wasn’t yet grown—could be more greenery to breathe life into the place. A gravel path would be good enough to connect each building.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Rud walked toward the nearest bush. The sun was getting low and he was hungry. But as he glanced back to the new buildings, he couldn’t help but think about Mint and her situation. Each building needed a wood-burning stove and she was the only one that could get those. That selfish part of him died, leaving behind a desire to see the spirit wolf back and in good health.

  ###

  Taz sat with Rud in the mushroom house the next morning. The tea they were brewing was far better than the old version, but the dwarf complained about a lack of ‘spice.’ The druid understood his meaning, but doubted their ability to brew anything stronger than energizing tea. Anything like that would need to come from the mortals.

  “I made progress on the cold storage,” Taz said. Some of the tiredness on his face had faded, likely aided by the bolstering effects of the tea. “The bats weren’t there at night. Shame you couldn’t get them to leave.”

  “Try arguing with a bat,” Rud said.

  “I can only imagine…”

  Something prickled at the edges of Rud’s senses. He stood, poking his head through the door to spot Mint limping into the clearing. Dropping his tea cup to the ground, he rushed out and wrapped his arms around her.

  Mint grunted in pain, but leaned into the hug. Her fur was matted with blood and mud, and streaked in places with soot. She smelled horrible and grimaced at the lightest touch.

  “What happened?” Rud asked, taking a step back to look at the massive form of the wolf.

  Mint nodded, then rested her tired body on the ground. She folded her paws under her head and sighed. “That was a battle worthy of song.”

  Rud could feel Ban’s interest lingering on the wolf. An unseen hand reaching out to probe the many wounds on the guardian’s body. After some close inspection, she pulled away. The druid got the sense that the wolf would live.

  “Tell the tale, wolf!” Taz shouted, coming out from inside the mushroom house.

  Mint cleared her throat, growling slightly as she recalled the events. “The mortals were in trouble. Something strange happened with the dungeons nearby. Perhaps they’re not managing them well enough. But a wave of monsters descended on Barlgore. The mortal forces were routed back to the town, pressed on three sides. I destroyed the lizard monsters to the west, then the bear monsters to the north. Once the mortals saw what I was doing, they rallied and pushed eastward.”

  “Are any of these injuries… as bad as they look?” Rud asked, pushing fur back to inspect Mint’s skin. The cuts weren’t deep, and none were bleeding freely.

  “I’ll be fine now that I’m back here.”

  “She’s so cool,” Taz said, patting Mint on the head. “Scary. But cool.”

  “Let her rest,” Ban said. Rud looked up, noticing how she used her real voice. “It takes more than a few low-ranked monsters to take down a spirit guardian.”

  Rud and Taz lingered for much longer than they should have, prodding at the guardian to ensure she was fine. Sarya arrived sometime later, licking at Mint’s many wounds and whimpering the entire time. The guardian drifted into a fitful sleep after that, right in the center of the grove. The druid transplanted a sapling, grew it to size, and shaped it to provide cover from the dappled sun overhead.

  “How about that freezer?” Rud asked, nudging Taz. “Wanna show me?”

  “Let’s go,” Taz said, rushing to the nearest bush.

  Rud accepted the Aspect of Gug before descending into the mine. The bats seemed less disturbed when they entered the cave area. Near the passageway leading into that cave, a new tunnel had been started. The druid inspected it, finding that Taz had carved stairs into the rock. Only a few steps down, he felt a cold that seeped through both his cloak and skin. It soaked into his bones as his breath caught in the air.

  “Now this is cold,” Rud said, rubbing his arms through his cloak. “Great idea.”

  At the bottom of the stairs was a short hall that led to a larger room. Taz had started working on the shape of a storeroom, but hadn’t finished it. The walls here were still rough, displaying tool marks on every inch. The dwarf was proud of his work, though. He puffed out his chest, folding his arms and nodding at every compliment thrown his way. When they were done in the food storage area, the dwarf showed off his room.

  Compared to the cold storage area, the room was more complete. There was a small wooden chest on the far end of the room sitting next to a thin bedroll. The room might have been bare, but when Taz entered it he let out a contented sigh. He rubbed his hands against the wall, showing off how smooth they were. Rud threw more compliments. He had no desire to live underground, but considering how little the dwarf had arrived with, this was impressive.

  “Very comfortable,” Rud said, although he didn’t truly believe it. The stone floor looked like the opposite of comfort.

  “Actually,” Taz said, snapping his grubby fingers. “You have the mining skill, right? Mind helping me etch out some more space in this wing? At the end of this hall I want an ore storage area.”

  Rud shrugged. He didn’t foresee mortals arriving the day after they fought back a bunch of monsters, so he agreed. Taz’s plan was to create a long hall near his bedroom, carving out rooms for various purposes. Dwarves were like that. The druid got some more tips on using the pickaxe as they worked, and it was the first time in a few days that he could use his Grove Custodian subclass. It didn’t take long for the subclass to level from 3 to 4. Like the skills, he expected some ability for both his main class and subclass when they reached Level 5.

  The excavation project took most of the day, leaving Rud with little time to consider his village. He finished with what few buildings needed work, and mapped the area out for some plants. Every building within the semi-circle kept most of their tree-like features, but the druid made sure there was plenty of sunshine. Standing under the boughs of so many trees might be harmful to the mortals, as he imagined they lived in open areas with plenty of access to the sun.

  “We don’t want unhappy mortals, do we?” Rud asked, humming to himself. He entered the forest, looking for plants to grow in his village.

  “I like your project, Rud,” Ban said.

  “Thanks,” Rud said, stooping low to inspect a bush. He had seen many like it in the forest. It mostly grew low to the ground, never rising high enough to challenge the sunlight from the trees. Instead, it preferred to live in those dappled spots under the trees, sucking what sunlight it could from the sparse beams.

  “Mint is recovering. But I don’t think the mortals will return for a while,” she said. “She left out some details about the attack from you. They took a lot of damage and will be rebuilding for a while.”

  “You’re pushing me to build the living road, aren’t you?” Rud asked, tutting at nowhere in particular.

  Ban giggled. “I am. Your main class is Druid, but you’re attuned to this grove. Once you understand freecasting, it’ll become much easier. The best way to do that is practice.”

  “Is this the part where you tell me what freecasting is? Because no one explained that to me.”

  Another polite giggle. “Druids are natural spellcasters. You enjoy the rare privilege of casting without knowledge.”

  Rud had never been offended by a tree before, but he pretended to experience the emotion. “Oh, my. You dare challenge my spellcasting prowess? I’ll twist you into the shape of a jungle gym.”

  “I’d like to see you try,” Ban cooed. “Freecasting allows you to employ your knowledge of the spell to cast it. You rely on your own ability, as well as the level of your skill in that magical school. Construction Magic is already as close to freecasting as a druid can normally get, but your spell opens that up.”

  Ban always had a plan, so Rud put it together quickly. This new freecasting state for his magic would allow him to make things quicker, which meant he could build the road. Easy enough to understand, but he didn’t see the need for haste that the Sacred Tree expressed.

  “What’s the rush, though? The mortals can take care of this, can’t they?”

  “They certainly can. But a living road is better.”

  “Strong opinions there,” Rud said, shuffling his feet through the leafy undergrowth. He shrugged, tilted his head, then smacked his lips. “Good enough reason for me!”

  “You’re a pushover,” Ban said, laughing into his mind.

  “I do whatever is required of me by my tree,” Rud said. He performed a shallow bow before stepping through a bush. The druid arrived at his mushroom house in time to find Taz roasting some meat over the fire. He put on some tea and joined with the dwarf.

  Mint’s chest rose and fell slowly, the dirt kicking up near her nostrils when she exhaled. Dinner was a quiet affair aside from Sarya’s whimpering. No one told her to stop, because they felt her pain. With the guardian injured, the grove was weaker. But with Mint injured, the spirit of everyone within the grove was weaker. She would recover from this, but Rud had to question if such a risk was worth it.